Tournaments and House Games

Note: For some reason, there is no functionality in El Paso, the town where you begin. You must take a train to Amarillo to start playing poker and once you've left El Paso, there is never a reason to return there. Why the developers did this is anybody's guess! Just bear in mind that references to 'owning all the cities of Texas' or 'every town' don't include El Paso. That said, and referring to every other city in Texas...

Every city in Texas is host to at least two separate daily poker games: a house game and a tournament. There is a cost to buy-in to the games, and this cost varies by area, starting with a maximum $260 buy-in in Amarillo and progressing all the way up to a one time, $15000 buy-in in Dallas! Buy-in for house games is a little lower than for tournaments, although at higher levels the difference becomes more pronounced. Top level buy-in for tournaments is around $2250, for house games it's closer to $1600.

Tournaments
Tournaments range in size from 5 to 80 players. Tournaments progress by standard single-player elimination until only one player remains. Leaving the table forfeits the tournament. The top three players receive prize money. In addition to regular tournaments, there are "shootout" tournaments in Lubbock, Killeen, Fort Worth, and Houston that offer bonus prize money for each opponent that you bankrupt.

House Games
House games are always 5 person games. Unlike tournaments, which require participation until all players are eliminated, house games may be terminated at any time without penalty. A nice feature of GoP2 is the ability to bet any properties you own in the town you're playing in. So if you think you've got a sure winner, you can bet the farm! Watch out for the river though! Fifth street often holds some nasty surprises for the unwary.

Competition for the various modes of transport (train, boat, etc) is conducted the same as a house game except you buy-in to the game as you would for a tournament, with the same penalty for leaving the game before it is over.